Inception! Nolan Can't dissappoint!

From IMDB.com about Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, Inception...

by webslinger943 2 days ago (Sun Jun 27 2010 20:34:05)	Ignore this User | Report Abuse
UPDATED Mon Jun 28 2010 08:36:48

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In my opinion, Nolan has yet to make a bad film and in general I don't believe the overall quality of his films has gone down over the last decade. This is his first completely original work since Memento (technically Following is his only original work, which I think is brilliant, but I like to count Memento as original because his screenplay is quite a bit different from Jonathan Nolan's story). Judging from Following and Memento, two original films based on no previously published material (unless you count Memento Mori) the quality of Nolan's writing is astonishing. Say what you will about the Batman films, Nolan's original works are largely viewed as his best work. Seeing as this is his most ambitious work to date and is his first original work in a decade more or less, I expect great things (no pressure, lol). To me, his original works are his best because of his control over the material and his ability to create such unique, complex, tormented, layered characters. His stories usually have a poignant, tragic, human quality to them, which I find refreshing, to counter all the recycled Hollywood formulas being churned out every year.
Aesthetically, his films are all tightly edited, move at a brisk pace have a dark, moody style to them, which I love, but they are not without humor. To me Nolan is not only a gifted storyteller, but a master craftsmen. His films demand your attention and doesn't let the audience take his film for granted. Just look at Memento, the Prestige, even the Dark Knight. So much information conveyed to the audience throughout the running time in each of his films, he doesn't let you look away. I don't expect Inception to be any different. We already know that some people are speculating as to how complex and confusing it will be. Like I said, this is vintage Nolan.
I love the concept of the film and in a way I believe Nolan has been building toward this film thorughout his career, judging by it's ambitious nature. While I'm not expecting it to be his crowning achievement (it will take a lot to beat Memento and we don't know what else he has in store for us later in his career) I expect this film to be quite satisfying. 

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Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself. If you haven't heard about Inception yet, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend to watch the trailer and check out the movie when it comes out on July 16th! ;)

LG Contest Entries

Well, for whoever wants to see them, here are my entries for the "LG Text Education" contest:
 
Nothing Spreads As Fast As A Rumor

Distracted Much?

Worldwide Pic
Sexting... You Never Know Who's Watching

This was a long, tedious, yet fun challenge. After 5 days of almost straight filming and editing, I finally finished uploading the final video at about 2 o'clock this morning with about 11 hours to spare in the competition. Even if I don't win, it was very fun and I definitely learned a lot from it and more importantly, gained experience..... Actually, who am I kidding haha, with 8 guaranteed spots for $6,000 each, why not! ;)

So I guess I'll let you guys know what goes on when the judging gets completed in a few weeks, and wish me luck in the contest!

And now that its all over... I am going to have the longest nap of my life ;)

LG Text Education...

Well it is such a relief to have all of my entries finally completed. Hopefully they win and I get a couple Gs ;)
Now all I have to do is stay up for the next couple of hours waiting for my vids to export and load them up onto the site...

If you're reading this lol, I'll post the links tomorrow so that you can watch them yourselves...

Alright, peace

Nothing Spreads As Fast As A Rumor...

Hey, I've uploaded my first finished commercial for the LG contest, check it out here!
http://www.poptent.net/media/18586


Now only 3 more to go and less than 30 hours to do them in ;)

Voodook's Contest and After Effects Crash :(

So some good things and a bad thing happened today. I almost finished one of my entries for the LG contest but when I tried to export it, it crashed and as smart as I am it wasn't saved... Theres not a whole lot that needs to be redone, but still...........................

Then theres a good thing. If you have heard of voodook's contest on youtube, you know it was a video contest and creator with the most votes won. I got 20 votes (for my short film Taste Of Loneliness), and the closest person was about 18 votes so you guessed it... I won! Really though, this is the first thing I have ever won in my life, so its a big acheivement... for me...

Well, I guess I should see if After Effects has had time to cool down before I try to mess with it again.
Later...

Busy Day... err Week...

Wow, todays gonna be a VERY busy day. I've got at least 2 different projects to film for today, and possibly even a third. The time schedule isn't very long so we're gonna have to haul. Then I gotta run home and start editing again. I'm almost done with our first project, but now I'm gonna have to edit the other 2-3, PLUS I got one more for another contest I'm doing due this Friday lol. So I'm gonna have a few hours tonight to edit, a few tomorrow (if we have time after filming some more), before I gotta go to work. Then on Friday, I'm not going to have much time because my family is going camping and my dad wants to leave EXTRA early so that we have a good spot, so that ruins my chances for editing Friday night-Saturday morning. Then on Saturday, depending on how much time I have left, I'm gonna have to finish editing and begin uploading before I go to work so that they can be turned in before the deadline...

Dang, this is gonna be hardcore epic but hopefully we get everything done in time. And who's to say we don't win a few Gs after this contest is over cuz our commercials are bombing ;) Haha, well, hopefully we win something in the end...

I'll let you guys know what goes on... Well whoever is reading this so far haha



-Oh and I tried uploading the behind-the-scenes vid to this site, but the file is too big! I'll figure something out soon enough, so don't worry...

Toy Story 3

Well I have to say, I kinda went into the movie thinking that it was gonna be kinda crappy like a lot of other animated sequels that have been coming out lately... (Yes, I'm talking about you Shrek 3,4,5, etc.)
But I also have to admit that this movie was different. It was actually good! The funny parts were hilarious and the sad parts were sentimental. The ending didn't ruin it and brought the whole series to a respectable closing. So hopefully they stop here and don't create a 4th title 10 years down the road...

If you haven't seen Toy Story 3 yet, I highly recommend it, and I may see it again in theaters very soon. If there was one thing I was disappointed with my trip to the theaters though, it was the lack of good movies to look forward to in the future haha. The previews that I saw:
 The Sorcerer's Apprentice = Dumb...
Cats And Dogs = Lame...
Some Ruppunzel (is that how you even spell it?) animated cartoon that looks almost as bad as "Jennifer's Body"...
The movies that I DO look forward to are Inception (made by my favorite director, Christopher Nolan) which comes out July 16th, and Avatar The Last Airbender... There aren't really any other movies out there that tickle my fancy, and thats a shame considering I won't have as much to look forward to this summer...

Another lame thing at the movies was the lady with the 2 (yes 2!!!) crying babies one row behind me, my younger brother coughing up his lungs to my left, and the poor sap to my right who kinda had a major "blonde" as his date. I'm sorry, but she was probably the most annoying person I've ever heard in a movie theater. You'd think people would learn (after recieving death glares from several people) after laughing at the same thing that happened 30 minutes ago... Oh well, poor guy though...

And to top it all off, my FIRST Behind-The-Scenes video is underway! I am just transeffering the footage right now, and might be done with it tonight. Expect to see it sometime tomorrow morning/afternoon! And please, leave comments so I know that whoevers reading this (which is just me at the moment), is actually here. You don't need an account, theres a special anonymous profile just for you people who don't want to show themselves!

So thanks again, please support this blog, and look for the first Behind-The-Scenes vid, VERY SOON ;)

Reply to "Being a Good Editor and Set Structure"

 In the words of Freddie Wong: http://www.freddiew.com/

"Funny how words change their meaning.
A lot of folks on YouTube tell us we’re “good editors” which is an interesting thing to be called because that word doesn’t mean what the film industry thinks it means anymore. Used to be a time where people would apprentice under a film editor, organizing clips, syncing dailies, and doing all the grunt work that being an “assistant editor” entails. After they’ve paid their dues, they’d move up to actually cutting footage. Used to be a time when being an editor meant taking in the footage, working with the director, and cutting together the sequence of shots that make a movie.
But nowadays “editors” are the directors, and being an “editor” seems to entail a lot of aspects of film production, borne out of necessity. As a filmmaker just starting out, odds are you shoot your own footage, direct the actors, cut together and add effects to the footage by yourself. The entirety of the post-production process is what a lot of people seem to consider “editing” nowadays, and also to a lesser extent, the act of shooting the footage itself seems to be considered part of the “Editing” process. Being labelled a “good editor” is about the highest praise you can hope to achieve – even greater than “good director” or “good producer.” A “good editor” is someone that is good at the process of making videos as a whole.
I got no problem with this – when I was starting out, my friends and I all referred to what we were doing as “editing” and we were loose with the terms because there weren’t enough people around to assign specific roles to (not to mention we didn’t have any idea what those roles necessarily entailed). The usage of the title is a symptom of lack of resources as well as the fact that technological advances has enabled a single person to handle the entire post production process of a video all by themselves. Rather than invent a new term, an older one was co-opted. And because good editing should be unobtrusive, actually good editing (say, a well cut, well paced dialogue scene) escapes the radar because it doesn’t have the whiz bang effect of flashy special effects or percussive music video editing.
But I definitely get the sense that the usage of this term doesn’t extend beyond the YouTube/DIY community. You don’t hear Spielberg or Tarantino referred to as “good editors,” and conversely, I think most of the people using the term in that way would be hard pressed to name Kahn or Menke as their respective editors. The next generation of filmmakers, and to an extent the generation that I occupy, is composed of a lot of individuals that are used to doing things by themselves and who’ve become jacks of all trades.
It’ll be interesting to see how on-set roles will change in the years to come. The rigidly defined roles on set work around big shoots and film cameras, but what happens when the crews get smaller and are composed of people used to wearing many hats? I strongly believe editors will no longer be relegated to taking in footage after it’s been shot and staying off the set – they’ll also become “On-Set Editors.” The job of an editor will require someone who handles all the footage dumping on set and is also fast enough of a cutter to rough in entire sequences as they’re being shot – a luxury that is only afforded by digital filmmaking and individuals who can specialize in numerous roles.
The advantages of such a position would be enormous – a director can respond immediately to a scene if it doesn’t play correctly, the editor can request different performances from the actors, and cutaways and inserts can be noted and in some cases, grabbed on the spot, reducing the need for reshoots and pickups. Why should there be two rounds of “performance evaluation” of an actor – once on set by the director, and then again by the editor in the cutting room? What matters is if the performance plays on the screen – and that can be evaluated on the spot. By assembling scenes moments after they’re shot, they’ll ideally have a very rough cut of the film the day it wraps production.
It’ll be interesting to see how filmmaking changes in response to the habits of filmmakers who are growing up now. We can restructure the shooting process into something that makes more sense by reevaluating the needs of digital filmmaking in combination with the myriad of skills of the crew."


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Here is just a reply I left to his post...

  
"Haha I’ve been getting a lot of replies on Youtube stating, “Oh you’re such a good editor!” or “How did you get so good at editing? I wanna edit like that!!!”
The thing thats most funny to me, is that its not how you edit a movie that makes it enjoyable to look at, its how you filmed it in the first place. If you have good sequences planned out and good composition in your shots, the editing really is a piece of cake…
I dont’ know, I just thought it was pretty funny when you said, “Being labelled a “good editor” is about the highest praise you can hope to achieve” and kind of had the same thoughts on it. But at the end of the day, I want to be known as a good director not editor
Good post though"

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So ya, hopefully you guys will be more educated now ;)
Good luck with your filming!

N64 for the win!!!

So I use to be a heavy gamer, but ever since I joined football last year and started making more videos, my playing time has gone way down. Anyways, I was sitting in my room today trying to figure out what to do when my eyes caught glimpse of something dusty sitting on my table. I went over there to take a look, and lo and behold I found my old Nintendo 64!

For those of you who don't know what that is, take a gander below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM8bcs-bq4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7WmMqT2c3U&feature=related

I began playing some of my favorite childhood games such as Donkey Kong 64 and Super Smash Bros. After enjoying myself for a bit, I thought, "Why can't games nowadays be as good as the old 64-bit versions???"
I came to the conclusion that people nowadays want a game packed with silly effects and cool gimmicks rather than actual enjoyable and memorable gameplay experiences. Then what struck me as ioronic was the fact that even in games, the story should be more profound than the visuals. Funny how this is the same technique that I use when I make my own films. I will seek story rather than special effects any day...

And while the growing majority want cheap laughs and amazing effects, they will continuously be disappointed with tomorrow's promises for better entertainment. I've realized that the story is where it counts and hopefully the remaining population, not already dumbed down by today's media, will realize this as well and we can look forward to better entertainment in the future...


(Wow, all this from playing DK 64? I'm good... ;) haha)

What UP???

Hey guys, just found out about this site and am gonna try to put it to good use. I'll fill you in on my latest projects and possibly some behind-the-scenes tidbits. I'll post my new vids up every time I make one, and will be looking forward to your comments, so let me know what you think!

 Hmmmmm..... I'll probably have a ton of random crap to throw on here, just whatevers on my mind because I currently do not own any of my own film equipment, so I must wait to borrow from others. By the way, if you'd like to donate some free/used equipment, it would be a great relief haha. Just shoot me an email over at "A-Lo9@hotmail.com"

Well I guess thats it for today, but don't forget to visit my youtube page which has some of my vids already up-to-date and featured!

Click here for the link...

 And make sure to comment and help this blog grow, because I don't want to seem like a lonely loser who doesn't have any friends. I'm gonna devote some time to this blog, so don't let it go to waste!

Haha, alright later and looking forward to the future of this blog. Peace!

-Adrian